city from all over the world. The sciences brought from India included
aspects of astronomy, medicine, and math (the “cipher” and “Arabic”
numerals are said to have their origins in India). Literature and folk stories
informed Arabic and eventually European cultures. The Pañcatantra, for
example, that anthology of Indian folk tales, was translated into Pahlavı ̄ in
the sixth century and thence into Arabic (c. 750), then into Persian, Syriac,
Hebrew, and Spanish. A German version (1481) was one of the first printed
books in German, and translations into Italian and English followed. Among
the themes in “European” stories that may have had Indian origins are
talking beasts; Sinbad the Sailor (found in the Arabian Nightswith many
Indian references); the princess and the pea; and many others. One intrigu-
ing story that appeared by the fifth century in Greek is that of Josaphat,
a young Christian prince who renounces the world to become an ascetic.
Translated into several European languages by the sixteenth century, it
appears to be based on the story of the Buddha as found in the Lalita Vistara,
albeit now the prince is in Christian guise.^16
The colonial period
The coming of the Portuguese and other European colonial powers to India,
in addition to the impact it had on the subcontinent, also spawned con-
siderable interest in Europe about India.^17 Travel reports and literature
stimulated and perpetuated this intrigue, obviously filtered through
European lenses. Goa, for example, became a center for European visitors
and one of the earliest reports was that of Camoens(1525–80), who roman-
tically described Vasco da Gama’s landing post facto.Thomas Stephens,
an English Jesuit living in Goa as of 1575, wrote a grammar in Konkanı ̄; a
poemKristana Pura ̄n.a(the Pura ̄n.a of Christ) was written by an admirer
of the Mara ̄thı ̄ language. Van Linschoten, a guest of the archbishop in Goa
from 1583–89, wrote a rather sensitive report, entitled “Itineratio,” which
was published in 1595.^18
The Mughal court had a variety of European visitors. One of the earliest,
an Englishman named Fitch, returned to England with such glowing reports
it prompted the East India Company to request permission to set up a factory
in Surat in 1608. Two East India chaplains (Lord, 1630 and Ovington, 1689)
reported on Surat. That and other travel literature influenced the poetry
ofJohn Milton. There were resplendent descriptions of the Mughals by
Dryden(1675),TavernierandBernier(1684), and others.^19 Perhaps the
most important development during the Mughal period were the trans-
lations of Da ̄ra ̄ Shikoh into Persian. The translations of fifty-two Upanis.ads
were completed in 1657, then translated into French by Duperron in 1801.^20
Imperfect as these translations were and being presented through Islamic,
230 India’s Global Reach